Sunday, February 8, 2009

Linux On Old Hardware: More Progress

After getting Turbo Linux 10 OEM to run on my computer, I decided to install ndiswrapper. To install ndiswrapper, I needed the kernel sources, which I obtained from the Turbo Linux 10 updates FTP link. I also used the RPMs to upgrade my kernel from 2.6.0test to 2.6.0-24.

I set the KBUILD environment variable to my Linux kernel source directory with a:export KBUILD=/usr/src/linux-2.6.0...and ran "make" overnight, which compiled the kernel sources and ndiswrapper. After it was done with its buzzing, I did a "make uninstall" followed by a "make install". It would always fail on the installation with a:ndiswrapper install: cannot stat ndiswrapper.ko No such file or directory

I then tried to set the KVERS variable, as I found the symbol in the Makefile within the drivers directory of ndiswrapper with the following:export KVERS=2.6.0-24

That didn't seem to make much of a difference either as I still got the error. I also tried manually copying ndiswrapper.ko from the Linux source directory to the directory it was trying to install to. I did a Google search, but the only suggestion I could find was to do a manual copy and run make install again, but I already did that so it wasn't of any use to me.

From the output, I can tell that the installation wants to copy ndiswrapper.ko from one directory to another, but I can't seem to tell which the source directory is. I'll run "make install" again and will look at the final output with a more analytical eye.

UPDATE: I noticed it was leaving the /root/ndiswrapper-1.54/driver directory after the error, so I figured I had to put the ndiswrapper.ko in there. That got "make install" working without errors, but when I do a "modprobe ndiswrapper", I get a "FATAL: Module ndiswrapper not found".

UPDATE: The ndiswrapper.ko was copied to the wrong directory... after I moved it, I did a "modinfo ndiswrapper" to ensure it was in the right place, followed by a "depmod -a" and a "modprobe ndiswrapper". Now, it complains "loadndisdriver: main(542): version1.9 doesn't match driver version -a". I think I should get a newer kernel to work with ndiswrapper 1.53.